Now that Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty has been out for roughly a week, players are reaching the new ending for the base game. It’s one of the expansion’s selling points and one of the biggest curiosities for me.
I’ve beaten Cyberpunk 2077 several times since its launch, and I like how it handles several of its endings. If not outright tragic, many are bittersweet. V’s best-case scenario is having about six months to live as they’re essentially an engram in their own body. Despite having little time to live, they can still become a legend by taking on an impossible feat, with all roads leading to one climactic finale.
My assumption going into Phantom Liberty‘s new ending was that it’d somehow tie into this last-ditch effort. I wasn’t sure how much sense it’d make to incorporate the NUSA in the base game’s climax, but I would have been here for it.
What I got makes far more sense and is far more devastating than I imagined. I wasn’t expecting a happy ending, but Cyberpunk 2077‘s new conclusion is upsetting. I don’t want to go ahead and call this a “Bad End”, but it hit in a way I couldn’t have foreseen.
As a precaution, there are heavy spoilers for Cyberpunk 2077‘s new ending since I’ll be going over most of its important details. Also best to bring tissues for this one.
Time passes and people move on
I admit, I wasn’t expecting V to find a cure in this new Tower ending, but they do. It’s honestly the only ending V can definitively live beyond their twenties, but the price for life is high.
When Solomon Reed informs V of a procedure for extracting the Relic, the promise is a days-long surgery before weeks of recovery in an undisclosed location. Another part of this promise is that V could return to their life in Night City after surgery if they wished.
Johnny and V’s last conversation is bitter as the former expresses the pair’s journey led to nothing. He eventually accepts V’s decision as they’re sedated.
V unfortunately spends two years in a coma, leaving little to return to. On top of that, Reed informs them that damage to the nervous system means using intensive cyberware risks death.
Reed offers a job working for the FIA, but V at most considers the position. Regardless they still want to go back to Night City.
Afterward, they learned their friends there moved on. Judy for instance moved to Philadelphia with her wife. Panam meanwhile refuses to speak to V.
Viktor does offer to look at V when they get to Night City, but upon arriving finds Misty’s Esoterica closed. In its place is a Zetatech store with Viktor working for the corp. He reaffirms what Reed said, confirming V can never work as an elite mercenary again.
A disheartened V is further beaten down by a pair of no-name thugs who push them down a flight of stairs. It’s there they finally meet Misty who reveals she’s leaving Night City to find herself in Poland.
The game ends after they reconcile, and it’s hard not to feel melancholy. Yet on the same token, there’s a glimmer of hope for finding something new.
Choosing the quiet life over becoming a legend
V’s first conversation with Dexter DeShawn has him asking what they would choose: to live a quiet life, or die young to become a legend. V becomes a legend in most base game endings, but it’s not as if they had a choice. They were dragged into Johnny Silverhand’s war against Arasaka, and the only path to a cure was doing what he couldn’t.
Utilizing the bonds formed throughout Cyberpunk 2077 to take Arasaka down is empowering, and V solidifies their status as a legend by defeating Adam Smasher. There’s satisfaction in achieving something this monumental even when V has little time to live after. They make history in most endings. Phantom Liberty allows them to not do that.
V can finally choose the quiet life. The conversation with Misty is especially enlightening because V can finally understand how she lives. Despite not seeing each other for years, I believe this moment is the most connected the friends have ever been because V now sees the world as Misty does.
Misty reassures her friend there’s much to this world beyond what they know. These changes may have been unforeseen, but she reframes them as V’s second shot at life.
I’ve seen takes calling this ending bleak, and while I can see that, I disagree. Seeing V as a shell of their former self is disempowering, but their newfound potential is greater than ever. My heart shattered, but not in a way I felt in a game.
Living with unforeseen changes and life’s lack of excitement
Part of what hits so hard about The Tower ending is that V becomes relatable to someone like me. I can’t put my shoes in a slick cyber ninja, but I know how it is feeling lost and hopeless. I also relate to someone who thought they had more friends than they did.
V is around their mid-twenties, and so am I. It’s a decade of sweeping changes before hopefully settling in with a fulfilling purpose.
Among these probably include making radical life decisions and meeting some amazing friends. That latter part especially might be true for a while, but sometimes you lose contact with those friends.
It happens even when you don’t want to. Then life calms down. The excitement vanishes. It hurts losing contact with previously close relationships.
Life can feel pointless sometimes, but it often takes a little reassurance to know things will get better. Sometimes that comes from a familiar voice who stayed with you through the exciting times and the dull ones. It can also come from an unexpected source who gives comfort in a way you never expected.
That’s what I see in The Tower ending, even if I understand why it’s upsetting. For such an exciting adventure, it’s a surprisingly boring and melancholic conclusion.
At least, it’s those things when compared to how stories within the cyberpunk genre play out. V found an out from the corporate and political warfare and took it. Even if the consequences were higher than expected, V has a better chance for a peaceful life as the world simply moved on in their absence.
There’s something gratifying in seeing what should be such a pessimistic ending have such a hopeful note attached to it. One where V may have lost so much but can still rebuild with a new perspective.
It’s what even The Tower card in tarot is about, since Cyberpunk 2077 each ending’s name comes from the deck’s major arcana. It symbolizes unforeseen changes and even chaos, but it also means renewal and liberation. In every essence, this is as much a new beginning as it is a conclusion for V’s story.
My personal favorite ending is still The Star ending, since V can lead a comfortable life outside Night City. It’s a satisfying conclusion since they find contentment while remaining a living legend, arguably the best of all worlds.
Still, The Tower is Cyberpunk 2077‘s most emotionally raw ending for me. It taps into something not many games tackle, and that’s others moving on when you haven’t.
Heartbreak sucks, but eventually, we pick ourselves back up and gather the pieces we have to create something better. V did just that after Konpeki Plaza, and they can do it again.
Published: Oct 6, 2023 05:00 pm